Exhibit Based on Baylor Professor's Book

Sept. 9, 1996

An exhibit based on a book co-edited by Baylor University assistant professor Dr. T. Lindsay Baker opened recently at the Oklahoma Museum of History in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The exhibit is titled "I Been Waiting To Tell Someone About This: Works Progress Administration (WPA) Oklahoma Slave Narratives." The exhibit consists of photographs, texts and artifacts from the WPA slave narrative project which was conducted in the 1930s. Part of the exhibit is the voices of former slaves reading from the narratives of Baker's book.

The book, which was published in March of this year, was co-edited with Baker's wife, Julia. The book presents 130 interviews with elderly African-Americans in Oklahoma about their memories of slavery.

Baker and his wife served as consultants for the exhibit which will be featured at the Oklahoma Museum of History until the end of the year. The exhibit will be featured in Tulsa, Okla., for the first six months of 1997 and the rest of the year it will be exhibited at Langston University in Langston, Okla.

When Baker and his wife were compiling the slave narratives for his book, he said he never thought they would be the basis of an exhibit.

"This is such a great recognition, we could not believe it," he said. "It is an honor for a Baylor faculty member to have his work in the Oklahoma Museum of History."